Failed 2022

    Why Hodlnaut Failed

    Small crypto lending platforms offering 7%+ yields on stablecoins were all exposed to the same correlated risks.

    TL;DR — Failure Post-Mortem

    Hodlnaut was a Crypto/Lending startup founded in 2019 in Singapore. It raised $40M (capital raised, not a verified loss) before shutting down in 2022, 3 years after founding. IdeaProof's Failure Score is 72/100, driven by terra/luna losses & fraud. The shutdown affected employees, investors, and the broader Crypto/Lending ecosystem. This case study breaks down the timeline, root causes, competitors that won, and replicable lessons for founders validating similar ideas today.

    Why did Hodlnaut fail?

    Hodlnaut failed in 2022 after 3 years of operation. $40M in raised capital. The root cause was terra/luna losses & fraud. Key lesson: Small crypto lending platforms offering 7%+ yields on stablecoins were all exposed to the same correlated risks.

    Verifiable facts
    Sourced
    Founded → Closed

    2019 → 2022

    Funding Raised

    $40M

    Industry

    Crypto/Lending

    Country

    Singapore

    IdeaProof AI Failure Score

    72/100
    Market Fit Risk
    50
    Burn Rate Risk
    45
    Founder Risk
    85

    Causal Chain

    Derived · heuristic

    Interpretive pattern, not company-specific evidence: this chain is derived from the recorded failure reason and may apply to many companies with the same reason.Timeline dates, funding numbers and filings are facts (see methodology); root / proximate / terminal attribution is judgement based on public evidence.

    Root cause

    Governance and control failures — absent independent oversight, related-party transactions, or misrepresented financials — that made the entity unable to operate legitimately once exposed.

    Contributing factors
    • Sector context: Crypto/Lending in Singapore, 3 years after founding.
    Terminal event

    2022: shutdown (see sources for the documented terminal circumstances).

    Base rates

    External sources

    A single failure is an anecdote. These base rates give you the denominator — how common this outcome is across all startups matching Hodlnaut's profile. Sources are third-party; we do not restate them as our own claims.

    ~35%
    all

    of new US employer businesses survive past their 10th year (Bureau of Labor Statistics BED series).

    US Bureau of Labor Statistics — BED (2024)

    Full Analysis

    Hodlnaut was a Singapore-based crypto lending platform that offered high yields on crypto deposits. The company lost $190M from exposure to Terra/Luna and 3AC. Co-founders were charged with fraud for allegedly hiding the losses from users while continuing to accept deposits. Platform was shut down and placed under judicial management.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Could This Failure Have Been Prevented?

    IdeaProof's AI validates market demand, competitive positioning, and business model viability in minutes — catching the exact issues that sank Hodlnaut.

    Related Failures

    Voyager Digital

    $1.3B (liabilities) · 2022

    3AC Counterparty Default

    Genesis Global

    $0 (DCG subsidiary) · 2023

    Counterparty Losses & Contagion

    Spotted a factual error?

    Approved corrections are published in the public changelog with attribution.

    After Hodlnaut: hubs, comparisons and deep dives

    Compare the validation, funding and go-to-market choices that separate survivors from failures like Hodlnaut.